SWALLOWS 77 



male as a roosting place. When the birds leave the nest 

 they pinch the walls of the opening together, and at a 

 time when such is the case, the blind opening would 

 naturally act as a decoy to any marauding snake or field- 

 rat, which might be as good an explanation as the one 

 offered by the blacks. 



The Penduline Tits lay from six to twelve tiny white 

 eggs. 



SWALLOWS. 



It will now be necessary to make a big jump, so far 

 as classification is concerned, and turn to the Family 

 Hirundinidce (Swallows), whose nests of mud pellets are 

 a familiar enough sight to all. 



The Rock-Martin (Ptyonoprocne fuligula) is a brown 

 bird with the tail-feathers, excepting the centre and two 

 outer ones, adorned by a circular white spot on the inner 

 web. 



It is not found north of the Transvaal, nor in German 

 South-west Africa, but is otherwise fairly evenly dis- 

 tributed. It builds an open half-cup-like nest against a 

 rock or under the eave of a house, of mud pellets, and 

 lays three or four eggs of light cream spotted with 

 various shades of brown. 



The European Swallow (H. rustled) does not breed in 

 South Africa, being a migrant from Europe, arriving here 

 between September to November, and departing again 

 during March or April. 



The White-throated Swallow (H. albigularis) is dark 

 blue above, except the forehead, which is reddish, below 

 white except a broad band of blue across the chest. 

 It also is a migrant, arriving about the same time as the 



